Help with planetary imaging

[Potter]

Hi I am newish to this hobby...so please bear with me on this regarding terminology......bought a Williams 81 and now have it mounted on an EQ5 mount...with hand controller. I have a Canon eos 60D to use for planetary imaging.  The problem is Jupiter when viewed via the camera is very distant...Thought was by a 2" Luminos barlow lens. Well fitted it all up this evening and could get nothing at all via the camera....Im missing something here as this is the third night with nothing to show for it.....Question is do I need a lens to fit inside the barlow? or do I need spacers? I have plenty of patients but its very frustrating or getting to be.......any help would be appreciated.....many thanks

[vlaiv]

Hi and welcome to SGL.

Jupiter will look tiny when you look at it thru the view finder as it takes up very small portion of the FOV.

Your sensor has 5184 x 3456 px and Jupiter is usually around 100-200px in diameter in images (really depends on the telescope used and rest of the setup).

Barlow lens is the right choice - but barlow lens pushes focus point further out. You might need to add extension tube to your focuser to be able to reach the focus.

Planets are usually not imaged the way the rest of things are - they are imaged with technique called lucky planetary imaging (look it up and maybe watch a few tutorial videos on youtube for that).

DSLR is also not the best choice for planetary imaging, but can be used if it has particular option (it needs to record video in 1:1 crop mode at small resolution like 640x480). For your model suitability check this:

https://www.astropix.com/html/equipment/canon_one_to_one_pixel_resolution.html

[Potter]

thanks for that....I will look on you tube\\  

[Astronomist]

Optimally you should be at a focal ratio of around F20 to F22 for planetary imaging with your camera. If I assume the scope is a William optics zenithstar 81 at F6.9 then idealy you should be using a 3x barlow.  Of course it is still well worth trying with a 2x barlow, you just won't be taking advantage of the scope's full resolution.  Give it a go, you might be surprised with the results!

[Potter]

Thanks Harry....I have a  Celestron Luminos 2.5 x barlow lens thats 2".....tried a 25mm eye piece tonight through the canon eos 60 d...black screen again....might need an extention tube do you think?   many thanks..

[Astronomist]

I doubt you will need to use an extension tube with a barlow, although it is a possibility as your scope was designed for prime focus imaging with an astro camera. If the screen is completely black then either you missed Jupiter, or more likely the ISO/exposure values are set too low and need to be increased.

Edited January 10 by Astronomist

[Bivanus]

NOT stupid at all, filming planets with a DSLR is it's own kind of chalange....The way I managed to do it has been centering with an EP - the Pan24 works for me - then change to DSLR (Canon EOS T2i aka 550D) in 640x480 , see where Jupiter is and slowly center it in the white square THEN switching to Crop Mode. 

See atached for Jupiter

https://photos.app.goo.gl/VDzE4gH42TxbiWA4A

and Saturn

https://photos.app.goo.gl/VgAoXEXByYWVCq9Q9

EDIT: 2.somethingx Barlow , I played with two 2x detachabel lenses because I simply couldn't get a 3x one  

Edited January 10 by Bivanus
Info added

[geoflewis]

22 hours ago, Potter said:

Hi I am newish to this hobby...so please bear with me on this regarding terminology......bought a Williams 81 and now have it mounted on an EQ5 mount...with hand controller. I have a Canon eos 60D to use for planetary imaging.  The problem is Jupiter when viewed via the camera is very distant...Thought was by a 2" Luminos barlow lens. Well fitted it all up this evening and could get nothing at all via the camera....Im missing something here as this is the third night with nothing to show for it.....Question is do I need a lens to fit inside the barlow? or do I need spacers? I have plenty of patients but its very frustrating or getting to be.......any help would be appreciated.....many thanks

It is certainly possible to capture planetary images with a DSLR, as I have done it, but as others have said, it's not the ideal choice of camera. The method I used was using ImagesPlus Camera Control to capture a series of .bmp images that in effect simulates a slow speed video capture, then stacking those to get a higher resolution image. Back in the day ImagesPlus was a highly respected commercially available software suite for both image capture and image processing. The developer, Mike Unsold, ceased development of the product several years ago, at which time he made the then latest versions of the products free to anyone to download and they are still available on his website. I no longer use the camera control suite (IPCC), but do still use the processing suite ImagesPlus. You can download both suites of software here. Be sure to make a note of the required serial numbers for each product if you decide to try them.

Mike also produced many tutorials, including one for planetary imaging using the Live View function of older Canon and Nikon DSLRs which you can see here. ImagesPlus Camera Control supports older DSLRs such as your Canon 60D, but not any recent DSLRs.

It certainly worth trying these tools and method and won't cost you a penny.

Good luck.

[Potter]

I will check all this out in the morning...thank you all for your replies...I have plenty of ideas to look forward to....I like a good challenge with support in the background.....hear from you soon all ☺️